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After the District moved forward with its legalization of marijuana last week overobjections from Congress, the leading opponent of the legalization measure lobbed an accusation at the residents of the capital city: ingratitude.

Last Tuesday, the chairman of the House committee that oversees the District of Columbia warned D.C. officials that they could go to prison if they insisted on implementing Initiative 71, the marijuana legalization measure that voters approved by an overwhelming margin last November. "There are very severe consequences," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) toldThe Washington Post. "You can go to prison for this. We're not playing a little game here."

The battle between Congress and the District of Columbia over its new voter approved marijuana legalization initiative may seem esoteric at first blush. That is because the current debate centers on when the District law was deemed enacted in order to determine whether it has violated a Congressional restriction on use of funds to "enact any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with" controlled substances.

Marijuana prohibitionists in Congress say District of Columbia officials may face years in prison for allowing legalization of the drug in the nation’s capital - but experts say it’s highly unlikely Mayor Muriel Bowser and her colleagues are headed to the slammer.

At issue is the disputed meaning of an amendment that passed Congress in December prohibiting the spending of funds to "enact" laws that legalize possession of marijuana for recreational use. Under one interpretation, district leaders are eligible for two years in prison. Under the other, they are not.

Marijuana is now effectively legal in the nation’s capital even though Congress tried to stop it.

District of Columbia residents who are at least 21 years old are free to grow as many as six plants and possess as much as 2 ounces, as a measure approved by voters in November took effect Thursday. It’s still illegal to sell the drug or smoke it in public.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, told Bowser that if she continued with her plan to implement marijuana legalization she would face "very serious consequences," The Washington Post reported.

"You can go to prison for this," The Post quoted Chaffetz as saying. "We're not playing a little game here."

The citizens of the District of Columbia in November voted to pass Initiative 71, which legalized the possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and the cultivation of up to three marijuana plants for individuals over the age of 21. That measure is scheduled to take effect at midnight Thursday.

Congress has always run D.C. like a plantation. But now, GOPers want to jail the mayor over a law the voters overwhelmingly passed?

I’m desperately trying to understand how getting marijuana laws passed nationwide has become today’s Selma, but if there is one thing that is intolerable it’s the shameful way congressional Republicans are bullying the residents of Washington, D.C., to not blaze in the comfort of their homes.